Like a Glove (Cartoon and Column)

The Democratic National Committee is suing Wikileaks, Russia, and the Donald Trump presidential campaign for conspiring to disrupt the 2016 election in favor of Trump.

Republicans say this lawsuit is frivolous and without merit and seek to have it dismissed. While the House committee studying collusion between Trump and Russia say there isn’t any evidence, the facts say otherwise.

While on the campaign trail, Trump publicly asked Russia to get involved in the election and to hack into Clinton’s email. The Trump campaign hosted Russians in Trump Tower who were promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. Don Jr. and Roger Stone were both communicating with Wikileaks. Wikileaks even asked Don Jr. to provide some of Trump’s taxes, so they could release them and make it appear as though they weren’t playing favorites. That’s collusion and a conspiracy.

The best part about this is it allows discovery for the Democrats to seek internal documents and testimony from the Trump campaign. Republicans can claim it doesn’t have merit, but it’s a fact the Democrats’ computer system was hacked.

Republicans and Trump are also allowed discovery and will seek information about the Clinton campaign’s financing of the dossier, written by a former British spy, detailing Trump’s connections to Russia. The only problem with them seeking discovery about the dossier is, it’s already been discovered and it’s not illegal. Conducting an investigation on your opponent isn’t illegal and it’s done by every campaign. Case in point, the Trump campaign inviting Russians to Trump Tower (though, that one might have been illegal).

If the GOP fights this in court with the same intelligence they’ve exhibited in defending Trump’s collusion with Russia, they’re in trouble.

The Democrats are seeking millions from the defendants for their conspiracy. Donald Trump is now a co-defendant with Vladimir Putin. Sure, it’ll be tough, if not impossible, to get the Russians and Wikileaks to cooperate in the lawsuit, but that will probably weaken Trump’s defense even further. Plus, Russia is probably too busy to defend themselves from charges of hacking the 2016 election in favor of Republicans while they’re busying themselves by hacking the 2018 elections in favor of Republicans.

There is precedent for this. In 1972, the DNC sued the Nixon reelection campaign for the Watergate break-in. Republicans called that suit frivolous also, yet they settled for $750,000 on the day Nixon resigned from the presidency in 1974.

The suit doesn’t name Trump as a defendant, but it targets Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Manafort’s deputy during the campaign, Rick Gates. The suit points out that these individuals were aware of Russia’s attempt to meddle in the election and instead of reporting it to law enforcement, they gleefully accepted the help. Manafort will have to get permission from courts (that’s plural) to leave his house to defend himself in court. He’s already wearing TWO ankle bracelets because he’s a huge flight risk.

Before Trump makes history by being the first president taken down by a porn star, he’ll make it by being the first president required to wear an ankle bracelet. Maybe Ivanka can design matching bracelets for Trump, Don Jr, and Jared.

This case isn’t frivolous. The Russians hacked the DNC and it’s very clear Trump was their choice. The problem for Trump and the Republicans is that there is a bloody glove…and it fits.